Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: g01d3n on January 16, 2013, 02:45 am

Title: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: g01d3n on January 16, 2013, 02:45 am
Hello, I was just wondering if it was safe to watch Youtube (or any other sites for that matter) on a non TOR browser at the same time I have TOR opened?

Does it even matter, or does this fuck up my anonymity?

Edit: Forgive me for the redundant title; I just noticed it.
Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: stemcell on January 16, 2013, 03:32 am
i was wondering the same thing. sometimes i search non sr realted stuff while on here due to the slow loading of some pages.
Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: g01d3n on January 16, 2013, 03:56 am
Agreed, stemcell. I like to watch my shows when browsing the Road, but I fear I may be losing my anonymity when having TOR and anon TOR browser opened at the same time.

Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: NorE on January 16, 2013, 04:02 am
Yeah i have always wondered this my self. Somehow i think it is safe, but on the other hand something says me it's not. So can't wait for a answer on this
Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: hazed on January 16, 2013, 04:53 am
im no security expert and there's answers about this out there...

But from what iv gathered the risk only comes when you try and open a clearnet site in tor!! This is normally done by accident...something to do with the javascrip maybe????

Bottem line most "casual" users are fine running both clearnet and deepnet at same time....But please dont take my word for it and research!!!
Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: SorryMario on January 16, 2013, 05:19 am
I'm too paranoid to do it, but everything I've read says it's safe and doesn't do anything to Tor's security. Tor browser routes traffic through the Tor connection but any regular (non-Torrified) browser's traffic goes through a direct connection, so their kept separate.

The one security consideration that Tor warns about is using the Tor browser to download PDF's DOC's or other kind of file and opening them while online:
Quote
Don't open documents downloaded through Tor while online

The Tor Browser will warn you before automatically opening documents that are handled by external applications. DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING. You should be very careful when downloading documents via Tor (especially DOC and PDF files) as these documents can contain Internet resources that will be downloaded outside of Tor by the application that opens them. This will reveal your non-Tor IP address. If you must work with DOC and/or PDF files, we strongly recommend either using a disconnected computer, downloading the free VirtualBox and using it with a virtual machine image with networking disabled, or using Tails. Under no circumstances is it safe to use BitTorrent and Tor together, however.
Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: Wadozo on January 16, 2013, 05:59 am

Quote
The one security consideration that Tor warns about is using the Tor browser to download PDF's DOC's or other kind of file and opening them while online:
Quote
Don't open documents downloaded through Tor while online

The Tor Browser will warn you before automatically opening documents that are handled by external applications. DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING. You should be very careful when downloading documents via Tor (especially DOC and PDF files) as these documents can contain Internet resources that will be downloaded outside of Tor by the application that opens them. This will reveal your non-Tor IP address. If you must work with DOC and/or PDF files, we strongly recommend either using a disconnected computer, downloading the free VirtualBox and using it with a virtual machine image with networking disabled, or using Tails. Under no circumstances is it safe to use BitTorrent and Tor together, however.

Here is a tutorial from pine on how to counter act this issue and open PDF's and alike safely.

Pine:  HOWTO: Pine's Tutorial on stopping LE malware with a virtual machine.

https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion.to/index.php?topic=39320.0


Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: MrVidalia on January 16, 2013, 11:37 am
Another point to note is that some of these content types can be used to exploit the operating system and introduce malware. Java, Flash and PDF applications are constantly updated to patch security vulnerabilities, but the problem is so called "0-day" vulnerabilities that have yet to be discovered except by malicious parties. It would not surprise me if adverseries of high profile Tor users would attempt to take this approach.
Title: Re: How safe is it to use TOR at the same time as a Non TOR Browser at the same time
Post by: acider on January 16, 2013, 01:47 pm
im no security expert and there's answers about this out there...

But from what iv gathered the risk only comes when you try and open a clearnet site in tor!! This is normally done by accident...something to do with the javascrip maybe????

It's actually the opposite, don't open links you find in here without tor. If the link is to a unknown/low activity site and you open it without tor a few minutes after posted here, the operator of the site would know who you are(your IP, but if it's LE it wouldn't be hard to get to your real info) and that you browse this place.

The only problem I heard of, if using another non-tor browser a the same time, is if you type by mistake the sr.onion address to the wrong browser. You would get a page not found error because the DNS servers don't list onion addresses, but someone said they could be capturing these requests at least for known illegal sites. It doesn't seem very likely but who can say they don't? It's not incriminating by itself but it is identifying.
Other than that, clearnet browsing by itself is not de-anonymizing and does not interfere with tor.